U.S. markets droop as oil falls Monday
NEW YORK, Aug. 4 (UPI) -- U.S. markets fell slightly Monday as oil prices dropped to 16 percent below the record price set in early July.
Investors are waiting a decision on key interest rates by the U.S. Federal Reserves Open Market Committee on Wednesday, although many expect the lending rates will remain unchanged at 2 percent.
Oil's drop to $121.27 per barrel helped boost oil-dependent airlines, which rose 3.89 percent as a group Monday.
By close Monday, the Dow Jones industrial average was off 42.17 or 0.37 percent to 11,284.15. The Nasdaq composite index dropped 25.40 or 1.1 percent to 2,285.56. The Standard & Poor's 500 lost 11.30 or 0.9 percent to 1,249.01.
On the New York Stock Exchange, 1,049 stocks advanced and 2,065 declined on a volume of 1.225 billion shares traded.
The 10-year Treasury note lost 8/32 to yield 3.97 percent.
The dollar was mixed. The euro traded at $1.5577 against Friday's close of $1.5584, while the dollar traded at 108.25 yen from Friday's 108.26 yen.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei average lost 161.41, off 1.23 percent, to 12,933.18.
The FTSE 100 index fell 34.50 points to 5,320.20, off 0.64 percent.
Consumers and cars mismatched, group says
WASHINGTON, Aug. 4 (UPI) -- Proposed U.S. fuel economy standards for 2011 to 2015 vehicles are based on faulty assumptions, a consumer group said Monday.
Speaking at a public hearing on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's 2011-2015 fuel economy standards, Mark Cooper, director of Research at the Consumer Federation of America, said the new standards "assume consumers don't want fuel economy and set a minimum standard."
Cooper said the automakers and the NHTSA failed to recognize early cues that U.S. consumers were shifting their focus to fuel efficiency.
"The auto industry acts as if plummeting SUV and pickup truck sales are a new phenomenon. The fact is gas guzzling vehicle sales have been falling off a cliff for over three years," Cooper said.
Currently, there is "a huge mismatch" between consumer demand for fuel efficiency and what consumers find in automobile showrooms, CFA said in a statement.
In a 2008 survey, 59 percent of the respondents indicated they want to get more than 35 miles per gallon out of their next vehicle, but only 1 percent of the cars on the market can run that efficiently, the CFA statement said.
Ford and GM discuss collaborative research
DETROIT, Aug. 4 (UPI) -- Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp., are in discussion to join forces on research and development, sources at both companies said.
GM proposed possible collaborations in late June, The Detroit News reported Monday.
Some at Ford were skeptical but Ford's head of global product development Derrick Kuzak viewed it as an opportunity to gain access to some of GM's technology, including GM's electrically powered Volt, the News reported.
Neither Ford nor GM would confirm any discussions but it wouldn't be the first time the two have joined forces, the News said.
The two worked together on development of a six-speed transmission that has become the cornerstone to each companies' power train systems, the News said.
The savings wouldn't be incidental. Research and development for a new engine can run as high as $1 billion; developing a new transmission can cost $800 million, the News reported.
While U.S. buyers of SUVs and pickup trucks are in mutiny, looking for smaller, fuel-efficient cars, splitting research costs with another company could result in substantial savings, the News reported.
New technologies to be tested by NASA
WASHINGTON, Aug. 4 (UPI) -- The U.S. space agency says seven firms involved in its Small Business Innovation Research program will take part in reduced gravity test flights next month.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration officials said the companies will test newly developed hardware on an aircraft that simulates the weightless conditions of spaceflight.
"Testing new technologies in weightless conditions is an important step in making them available for applications in NASA space projects," the space agency said in a statement. "An aircraft flying on a parabolic trajectory can create weightless conditions for up to 30 seconds at a time and simulate the reduced gravity conditions of the moon or Mars. This allows developers to test new technologies to ensure that they will work in space or, if they do not work during testing, understand why."
The project will be conducted by the Zero-Gravity Corp. of Las Vegas.
The selected companies are Beck Engineering Inc. of Port Orchard, Wash.; the Honeybee Robotics Spacecraft Mechanisms Corp. of New York; the Metis Design Corp. of Cambridge, Mass.; Mevicon Inc. of Sunnyvale, Calif.; the Mobitrum Corp. of Silver Spring, Md.; NanoComposix Inc. of San Diego; and Valeo Human Performance LLC of Houston.
